The invention disclosed herein is generally related to acoustic engines and magnetohydrodynamic electrical generators. More particularly, this invention is related to engines in which a heat flow is used to induce resonant acoustic oscillation in a fluid.
The present invention is related to the invention disclosed and claimed in the applicants' previously filed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 445,650, entitled "Intrinsically Irreversible Heat Engine," now U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,553. The invention described therein is operable to convert thermal energy to acoustic energy in a fluid by means of an intrinsically irreversible thermodynamic process.
Various devices have been previously known to convert heat to acoustic energy and subsequently to electrical energy. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,033 to Marrison discloses an acoustic wave system in which heat is applied to induce acoustic oscillation in a gas, which oscillation is used to produce electrical signals by means of various types of electromagnetic transducers. The disadvantage of using conventional transducers as disclosed in Marrison, however, is that there are moving mechanical parts which must be mechanically coupled to the oscillating gas.